Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period of extreme anti-communist suspicion inspired by the tensions of the Cold War. After several largely undistinguished years in the Senate, McCarthy rose suddenly to national fame in 1950 when he asserted in a speech that he had a list of "members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring" who were employed in the State Department.

The British author George Orwell, pen name of Eric Arthur Blair dies in London, Jan. 21, 1950

Sometime in the Fifties, Dr. Bronner sends out the first spam messages on his soap labels

1951

Hooneymooners airs - 1951

1951: Book: "The Catcher in the Rye" by JD Salinger1951: Film: "African Queen"

1952

1952 — Last reliable report of the Caribbean Monk Seal.

January 1 The Black Museum

Though most American radio programs were created at home, occasionally one was created by an outside source. Such was the case with The Black Museum. Produced by the BBC and hosted by Orson Welles, this series came to Mutual on this day. The series was based upon Scotland Yard's Black Museum, housing many artifacts from its own history. Welles could be heard leading the listener through the museum as he pointed out various artifacts. At some point he would focus on one item and begin telling a story based on the item's reason for being in the museum. The idea of the series was great as was Welles, but the series never really took off and left the air by December of the same year.

Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking, published in 1952.

With his victory in the 1952 presidential race, Dwight Eisenhower became the first Republican president in 20 years.

Film: "Singing in the Rain"

Nobel Peace Prize: Albert Schweizer

Book: "Charlotte's Web" by E. B. White

Book: "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

Book: "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison

First hydrogen bomb exploded

Printemps a Rio - Jacqueline François

Tu n´peux pas t´figurer - Jacqueline François

Tu voulais - Jacqueline François

1953

In 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson deciphered the structure of DNA. Understanding how DNA carries information and reproduces itself brought humanity closer to understanding one of the central mysteries of life. This discovery proved how Charles Darwin's theory of evolution worked in practice.

Discovery of the double helix structure of DNA

Intending to select a moderate conservative, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appoints Earl Warren to be the fourteenth Chief Justice of the United States.

Wilt Chamberlain 1:45

1954

George Devol applied for the first robotics patents in 1954

Earl Warren is confirmed by the Senate on March 1, 1954 to be the fourteenth Chief Justice of the United States

With the highly publicized Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, McCarthy's support and popularity began to fade. Later in 1954, the Senate voted to censure Senator McCarthy by a vote of 67 to 22, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion.

In the mid Fifties, the Rat Pack is founded by "Den Mother" Lauren Bacall, after seeing her husband, Humphrey Bogart and his friends return from a night in Las Vegas. The original members of the were Frank Sinatra (pack master), Judy Garland (first vice-president) and husband Sid Luft (cage master), Lauren Bacall (den mother) and Humphrey Bogart (rat in charge of public relations), Swifty Lazar (recording secretary and treasurer), Nathaniel Benchley (historian), David Niven, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, George Cukor, Michael Romanoff and Jimmy Van Heusen. In his autobiography The Moon's a Balloon, actor David Niven confirms that the Rat Pack originally included him but not Sammy Davis or Dean Martin.

There once was a union maid, she never was afraidOf goons and ginks and company finks and the deputy sheriffs who made the raid.She went to the union hall when a meeting it was called,And when the Legion boys come 'roundShe always stood her ground.Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.This union maid was wise to the tricks of company spies,She couldn't be fooled by a company stool, she'd always organize the guys.She always got her way when she struck for better pay.She'd show her card to the National GuardAnd this is what she'd sayYou gals who want to be free, just take a tip from me;Get you a man who's a union man and join the ladies' auxiliary.Married life ain't hard when you got a union card,A union man has a happy life when he's got a union wife.

November 17, 1957 - Police in Plainfield, Wisconsin, investigating the robbery of a local hardware store and disappearance of the owner arrive at the dilapidated farmhouse of Eddie Gein. They find a ghoulish inventory of decapitated corpses including an armchair made of human skin, female genitalia kept preserved in a shoebox, a belt made of nipples, a human head, four noses, a heart and a suit made entirely of human skin. Police discovered within Eddie's farmhouse the remains of ten women.

Elizabeth Cotten had retired from the guitar for twenty-five years, except for occasional church performances. It wasn't until she reached her sixties that she began recording and performing publicly. She was discovered by the folk-singing Seeger family while she was working for them as a housekeeper.

While working for a brief stint in a department store, Elizabeth helped a child wandering through the aisles find her mother. The child was Peggy Seeger and the mother was Ruth Crawford Seeger of the Charles Seeger Family. Soon after this Elizabeth again began working as a maid, caring for the Seeger's children Mike, Pete, and Peggy. While working with the Seegers (a voraciously musical family) she remembered her own guitar playing from forty years prior, and picked up the instrument again to start from scratch.

What a Little Moonlight Can Do - Billie Holiday 1958

1959

There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom - December 29th 1959 at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), by Richard P. Feynman

Nixon and Khrushchev July 26, 1959 Former Vice President Richard Nixon meets with Khrushchev . Their conversation and debate during the meeting became known as the kitchen debate.

Silent footage of the Beat Generation - Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lucien Carr, and others in New York, Summer 1959. The location is in and around the Harmony Bar & Restaurant at E 9th St. and 3rd Ave. Others seen are Mary Frank (wife of film-maker Robert Frank) and children Pablo and Andrea, as well as Lucien's wife Francesca Carr and their three sons, Simon, Caleb and Ethan.